Apple today sent out emails to iOS developers, promoting Xcode's continuous integration feature and offering free copies of OS X Server, which is normally priced at*$19.99. OS X Server, which was just updated to version 3.0, is provided for free for Mac developers.

First introduced in September, Xcode's continuous integration feature is designed to allow developers to create bots that run on a separate server, continually building apps, executing test suites, and searching for potential bugs, ensuring that apps are always in a releasable state after code changes.

Quote:

As an iOS developer, you can now take advantage of continuous integration in Xcode by creating bots with OS X server for Mavericks that automate the process of building, analyzing, testing, and archiving your apps.

As the bots do their work on the remote Mac, Xcode on your development machine displays the build and test reports. Bots can generate a regular release for your QA team, be configured to execute on every check-in, and even test your apps on connected iOS devices.

You know Apple is a hardware company when they give out software for free....hopefully some of their future software is more of a success because iWork still is leaps and bounds behind Microsoft Office.

Can someone give an example with more detail about how CI and bots work besides "build, test and analyze" apps.

The bots continuously scan for changes in the source code repository. Whenever you or another developer working on your project commits a change, the bots notice and kick off a build. The code is compiled and any automated tests are run and any problems are reported to the developers.

Question: I know in the past (Tiger, leopard) OS X server was a bit of a pain in the ass to run as a day to day OS - is this still the case? This automation sounds pretty cool but I don't have the need/setup to run a dedicated server machine. Would it be worth running on a machine I use daily to gain these features or will I shoot myself in the foot by doing so?

Question: I know in the past (Tiger, leopard) OS X server was a bit of a pain in the ass to run as a day to day OS - is this still the case? This automation sounds pretty cool but I don't have the need/setup to run a dedicated server machine. Would it be worth running on a machine I use daily to gain these features or will I shoot myself in the foot by doing so?

Set it up on an external drive and test it out then? You can run multiple copies of Mavericks on the same machine and still be within licensing terms. Go to the Mac App Store on any computer with Mavericks installed and you can download (again, I know) the 5.29GB Mavericks installer.

Question: I know in the past (Tiger, leopard) OS X server was a bit of a pain in the ass to run as a day to day OS - is this still the case? This automation sounds pretty cool but I don't have the need/setup to run a dedicated server machine. Would it be worth running on a machine I use daily to gain these features or will I shoot myself in the foot by doing so?

It's nothing like pre Lion server. Think of it more like server tools addon application. Essentially, its the same Mavericks as you would install on any mac, but with some extra tools added in. In fact all the tools are in a single app, rather than Server Admin, Workgroup Manager etc as it was before lion.